
The notes should sound as even as a click of a metronome. Your goal is to smoothly sweep the pick across all six strings in one single motion.Īt the same time, you should clearly hear six evenly spaced notes.
SWEEP PICKING EASY HOW TO
Note: if you don’t know how to read the above example, check out this lesson on How to Read Guitar TAB. Watch how you sweep the pick across the strings and the angle the pick hits each string. It might seem odd, but the best way to do this is to mute the strings with your fretting hand and focus 100% of your attention on your picking hand. Sweep Picking Exercise 1: Sweep WarmupĪs explained above, the first step to learning sweep picking is to focus on perfecting your picking hand’s accuracy. Work through those exercises to learn more. How to properly build up speed is explained in this lesson on how to play guitar fast. If you try to push the speed too soon, you’ll end up with a sloppy sweep picking technique. Back the tempo off slightly and try again.įocus on accuracy and the speed will follow. If you start noticing mistakes creep into your playing, it’s a sign that you’re trying to push yourself too fast.

Only raise the tempo if you can play the exercise perfectly. When you’re ready to work on building up your speed, use a metronome and gradually raise the tempo. While everybody who learns sweep picking wants to play lightning-fast arpeggios, you need to resist the temptation to increase the tempo too soon.ĭon’t try to play any of these exercises at a high tempo until you have developed your picking accuracy and hand coordination to a high level. Speed should be the last thing you think about when working through these exercises. Important: do not try to speed up your playing unless you can play an exercise perfectly without any mistakes. If you hear two notes at once, or you hear a muted hit instead of a note, slow the exercise down and try again. When playing a sweep picked arpeggio, listen carefully and make sure you can clearly hear one note at a time. You need to perfectly sync both of your hands together so you pick the string at just the right time. If you get your hand coordination wrong, your sweeps will sound bad.Ī common sign of bad hand coordination with sweep picking is when you hear any muted notes, fret buzzing, or notes bleed on top of each other. Hand coordination is crucial to a good sweep picking technique.

Hand coordination is how well you’re able to place your fretting hand fingers down on the string in time for you to pick the note correctly. What makes sweep picking challenging is your hand coordination. Sweeping the strings is a simple skill to learn. The good news is that this step is quick and easy to master. You will develop your sweep picking skills faster if you practice the muted exercises first. You can place 100% of your attention on the way your pick hits the strings. You won’t need to worry about playing the right frets or even thinking about what note to play next. By doing this, you can focus completely on your picking hand. The first few exercises ask you to mute the strings using your fretting hand. The first few exercises in this lesson will help you master your picking accuracy.

The best way to work on picking accuracy is to focus 100% on your picking hand and completely ignore your fretting hand. Picking accuracy is all about being able to accurately pick the correct string in the correct direction. Here are the three steps to learn sweep picking: Step 1: Picking Accuracy Finally, you should work on building up your speed. Second, you need to work on syncing both hands with good coordination.

First, you need to develop good picking accuracy. There are three steps to learning sweep picking. 16.1 Related Guides and Lessons: How to Develop Good Sweep Picking Skills
